Day: August 23, 2004

[Jackson] in early win 24aug04 THE judge in pop icon Michael Jackson’s child abuse case tentatively ruled today that scores of items of evidence seized at his Neverland Ranch could not be used against him in evidence. Judge Rodney Melville made the preliminary ruling on the fifth and final day Continue Reading

Prosecutors off the Hook for NV Raid? Not So Fast  MJEOL Bullet #185 UPDATE2 Initial reports had us fuming over the decision made by Judge Rodney Meillve in the Jackson case. However, other information is filtering in which provides a wider scope of just what happened in court today.

The AP is reporting that Judge Melville in the Michael Jackson case has let prosecutors off the hook for violating the gag order. This is inexplicable to a number of courtroom observers because its quite clear Tom Sneddon was on a discussion panel discussing the Jackson case. Other reports also state that Melville has made a tentative ruling about some of the so-called evidence/property taken from Jacksons Neverland Ranch. While other reports from correspondents in Santa Maria say that the judges ruling was a win for Jacksons side because the judge did decided that the majority of property taken was off-limits to prosecutors.

Melville has tentatively sided with the defense and has ruled to keep most of the information taken from Jackson’s Neverland Ranch off-limits to prosecutors; some 70 items will not be usable by prosecutors. For a minute there, we thought he had taken the denials of the parties involved over the actual evidence presented by Jacksons attorneys in court. And we all know cops never lie, dont we? *rolling eyes*

Initial reports said that Melville will allow some information in but had concerns about other information that could be covered by attorney-client privilege that was taken from Jacksons home. That information, apparently, was deemed off-limits to prosecutors.

Some of the alleged evidence that the defense and prosecutors were arguing over includes a financial magazine, The Robb Report, with Muhammad Al Fayeds number on it, and a videotape of the accusers family exonerating Jackson. Not exactly what one would call a smoking gun against the defense.